After all this time of suffering uneven, jerky movement and frame-skipping (especially when running through terrain), awful mouse lag in the menu and dreadful microstuttering in indoors locations, I've FINALLY found the answer - a simple FPS limiter that lets you choose what level you want to cap your FPS at. I tried 45 and it was silky smooth: all of the above mentioned problems simply vanished. The game flows like water now. Before I installed this mod my FPS would often be 60 or slightly above, and it seems the hiccups were caused by micro-second changes in framerate. It's funny how the game can actually perform so much smoother when you limit the FPS to a lower but steady value.

I was absolutely sure all these problems were caused by my Radeon 6870, but it seems I've been barking up the wrong tree. I hope this mod will save as many people as possible from having to suffer through this. My only regret is I didn't discover this earlier.. dealing with these issues really cooled down my enthusiasm to play the game. I hope it starts to reignite now!

Yep, only there seems to be some slight screen tearing if you keep it at a high FPS (though it's really only noticeable when looking up and down at the sky).. I'm trying a compromise and setting it at 50 for now. But man oh man what a difference it made! I can't believe I suffered through 400+ hours of that jumpy, twitchy, jerky sh**e until discovering this!

Thanks a lot for the link, I'm gonna check it out first thing tomorrow! Gotta call it a day for now, it's midnight here!

It speaks volumes about how compelling this game is, I usually delete the game within minutes if it's like that.

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Exactly! 90% of games simply aren't worth trying to 'fix' if they're fundamentally broken out of the box. It's a terrible investment for your time. Somehow Skyrim compelled me to bide my time, swallow my pride and try everything imaginable to get it running properly. It seems my efforts have paid off in the end! A second playthrough is definitely warranted! I was thinking once I finish with my first character, I will mod the hell out of Skyrim until it looks and performs absolutely beautifully, then go play something else for a month or two and THEN return to Skyrim. I'm hoping it will feel like I'm jumping right into a brand new game that is absolutely gorgeous and functional right off the bat.

I'll bookmark that so I can recommend it to other players with a similar issue. It's definitely interesting to know that helped your performance so well.

You may also want to look at mods that increase general performance. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I know a few exist.

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Very good Shenzi, spread the word. Regarding other mods, I tried SkyBoost back in the day and did notice a performance boost, but sadly there isn't a version available that would be compatible with the current patch. I'll look into the one that Skullrattla recommended. Anything that smooths out the rough edges (which the game has in abundance) is welcome!

I'm just glad Bethesda is starting to remove the need for those mods. With patch 1.4 on my PS3, I noticed a HUGE decrease in lag and load times get better, as well as fewer crashes and general hiccups (although, two days ago it basically trolled me), so I bet that it won't be too long until most problems like this are ironed out.

I'm just glad Bethesda is starting to remove the need for those mods. With patch 1.4 on my PS3, I noticed a HUGE decrease in lag and load times get better, as well as fewer crashes and general hiccups (although, two days ago it basically trolled me), so I bet that it won't be too long until most problems like this are ironed out.

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Indubitably. I have high hopes for patch 1.5.. mainly for improved functionality, less bugs etc, but I gotta admit the new kill animations looked sweet!

BTW, I found something that worked EVEN BETTER than the FPS limiter: an application called Dxtory. You can download a free version or pay for the product; the only difference seems to be that when launching the free version there is a 10 sec wait, and it might not have all the features of the full version. I haven't yet grasped all of its functions and complexities, but all I ever needed it for was simply limiting my framerate. I set it at 55 and the game has never run better. And this time around there is absolutely no screen tearing, unlike with the FPS limiter mod, because Dxtory doesn't forcibly disable your vsync. This wouldn't be a problem with Geforce cards because you can use the nvidia settings to turn it back on, but it doesn't seem to work with ATI cards.

So for those of you who have an ATI graphics card, I highly recommend downloading the Dxtory, using it to set the FPS to whatever value you wish, checking the box next to it to enable the FPS limiter, and preparing to enjoy some smooth gameplay.

Yes the latest 2 patches have improved stability loading times on the PC too...

The FPS Background Booster I linked to is very much worth trying, together with the FPS limiter.

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Tried it and love it! It seems to pick up the slack in the few areas of the world where my FPS otherwise drops down to 39-49 for some inexplicable reason (for ex. some places in the swamplands near Morthal, and the pinewoods of Falkreath).

For low end graphix cards, you want the V-Sync off . I only get very minimal tearing , mostly noticeable in the Skills menu.
Results will vary depending on yr graphics cards, I think.

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True. The screen tearing was never that terrible.. in fact only noticeable when looking up and down at the night sky. I could've easily lived with it as a tradeoff for the smoother gameplay, but good thing Dxtory gives me the best of both worlds.

I guess it all depends on your graphics card, as you said. Mine is an ATI 6870 1GB.

Now that I have it dropped in my skyrim file, I have no idea where to go to set the framerate limiter. Any help on that, please? Thanks ahead of time.

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Blackstreak, there should be a text or notepad file that that came with the mod. It only has a couple of lines of text, including the part where you specify your desired FPS number (I think it's 30 or 35 by default, but you can crank it up higher). I wish I could check what the file name was so you could find it faster, but I'm currently not on my own computer and my internet at home is down for the next 3-5 days. Can't even play Skyrim since it's on Steam, which requires an active internet connection! F*cking Steam..
Maybe Skullrattla will chime in and check the file name?